ButterflieRJ

I'm putting together a special cookbook for my cousin for her bridal shower. A big part of it is going to be gathering all the family reciepes we've got and putting them in a binder, but I'd like to add some more for her.

She's vegetarian (no meat or poultry, some fish (but not much). She does eat eggs, cheese and other dairy products.

Anyone have any great vege recipes they'd like to share? Or devine desserts? Or maybe even some cool cooking tips?

Summrs

I've done the same thing for my kids.. gathering family recipes, etc. Since my daughter went vegetarian when she ws 14, I've included a lot of special things for her particularly. Here are two you might be interested in... and I'll post them in the right section, too.

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook meatballs in oil about 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown. Add to Marinara Sauce or use for Sweet and Sour Meatballs.-------------------------

Choose a pot large enough to hold cabbage, fill halfway with water and bring to a boil. With a paring knife, cut out the core from the cabbage. Whack the cabbage core side down against the table a few times to loosen the leaves. Immerse the cabbage in the boiling water and place a plate over the cabbage to keep it submerged while cooking. Cook until the outer leaves are softened, about 10 minutes. Remove to colander and run under cold running water until the cabbage is cool enough to handle. Drain the cabbage thoroughly.

Meanwhile, bring 6 cups of salted water to a boil in a 3-quart pot. Add the arborio rice, 1 tb of the olive oil and the bay leaves. Reduce the heat to simmering, cover the pot and cook the rice until al dente, about 12 minutes. Drain the rice thoroughly, but don’t rinse it, and set aside to cool.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining 3 tb of the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add red pepper and cook until the onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the leeks and scallions, season lightly with salt and pepper and cook until the leeks are wilted, about 4 minutes.

Stir in the corn and sauté just until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach and stir just until wilted, about 1 minute. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a bowl. Stir in the cooked and drained rice, season with salt and pepper and cool completely. Carefully peel off 16 whole leaves from the outer layers of the cabbage, reserving the rest of the cabbage for another use. Cut out the thick, bottom part of each leaf’s stem and drain.

Heat the oven to 375°. Using about a tb of the softened butter grease a 9x12 inch baking dish. Stir the eggs, parsley, and 1 cup cheese into the rice mixture. Divide the rice mixture into 16 equal portions and roll in cabbage leaves. Place the rolls, seam side down, in the prepared baking dish. Pour the vegetable stock into the dish and dot the tops of the cabbage rolls with the remaining butter. Sprinkle the cabbages with the grated cheese and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake 40 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

In a large pot, saute' the onion and garlic until onion is transparent and garlic is fragrant. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas, stirring well to get all the onion and garlic incorporated. Add reserved bean liquid as necessary to make the mixture somewhere between a soup and a thick glob. Add curry powder and cumin to taste. Bring to a boil then simmer for five to ten minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

You can also make this into a soup by adding all of the reserved bean liquid and rice to the pot.

I also sometimes do a black bean, white corn, chunky salsa mix and wrap up a couple of tortillas with this. However, this tends to be a eat-over-a-container item because the juice just runs out the bottom, even if the tortilla is wrapped well. But Scoops work well with it, too.I start with one can of beans (plenty for a batch) and nearly a whole bag of frozen white corn, and then however much salsa looks good. I think it ends up being almost 1-1-1, but maybe it's a little less salsa. It's totally based on what proportion you like so you can make it however it looks tastiest to you! Some people add olive oil, cilantro, and spices that they like, but me? I'm lazy

Pretty much anything that you mix ground meat into (chili, tacos, sloppy Joe, lasagna, etc.) you can substitute something like Boca Ground for the meat and it tastes just as good.

lovinAZ

This first one is from the same vegan friend, so it calls for vegan margarine and "milk" (which I would define as soy milk). I'm sure you/she could try it with regular milk/margarine, but it's been my experience that it alters the taste. To me, I like it better as listed, but you could test it out the other way and see how they taste. As directed here, these are fabulously tasty

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). In a small saucepan, melt the margarine. Once liquefied, pour into a small bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon and sugar and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cereal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in “milk” until well blended and start rolling dough into 1-inch balls with your hands. Dip each ball into the melted margarine and then coat in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them in a lightly oiled 8x8 inch baking pan so the balls are touching one another and bake for 16-18 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from pan. Makes 20-24 doughnut holes.

In a large saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Add meatballs. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.Add spinach, tomatoes and corn. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.Add tortellini, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until tortellini is tender.

(4 servings)

**again, Trader Joe's fake meatballs and Veggie Patch fake meatballs are both really tasty and work well in this soup

If you like your soup with a lot of broth, use more than one can. One can of broth leads to a very chunky soup (which I like but others might not).

« Last Edit: March 18, 2007, 11:22:04 AM by lovinAZ »

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Sefie

Here's a couple of pizza recipes for when your cousin feels lazy! Mr Sefie is the same (ovo-lacto-pescetarian, I think is the term), and we usually have two pizzas every week as part of our normal "rotation". We use frozen pizza bases from the supermarket freezer.

1. Heat oven to 220C.2. Cut pumpkin into bite size pieces. The thinner they are, the quicker they'll cook. I usually cut them 2-3cm thick.3. Spray baking tray lightly with olive oil spray. Lay pumpkin out so they're not touching each other, spray lightly again. Sprinkle with salt if desired.4. Bake pumpkin for 15-20 minutes. No need to flip them unless your oven's weird.5. Spread pizza base with sauce.6. When pumpkin is done, carefully lay the pieces on the pizza. Reserve the leftovers for another pizza, antipasto platter or soup.7. We get a firm sour cream, so I just dab blobs of it all over the pizza8. Sprinkle cheese over pizza9. Bake pizza at 220C for 10-15 minutes, maybe a little less since the oven's been on the entire time

I like this pizza with tabasco sauce, Mr Sefie usually has it plain.

BBQ Tuna Pizza (2645 kJ/half pizza)

half an onion (could use a whole one if you like onion)1 serve pizza sauce200g tuna3 tbs BBQ sauce75g cheese

1. Slice onion into thin rings or slices. Fry in a non-stick pan with no oil, or a light spray of olive oil. I like mine a little burnt.2. Flake tuna3. Spread pizza base with sauce.4. Spread tuna over pizza base.5. Squirt BBQ sauce over tuna. We get it in a squeeze bottle so this is easy. If you don't have a squeeze bottle, you could mix the BBQ sauce in the pizza sauce.6. Sprinkle cheese over pizza. I use less cheese for this pizza because it can overpower the taste of the tuna.7. Bake pizza at 220C for 10-15 minutes

1. Spread pizza base with sauce2. Spread vegies on base - I usually go mushrooms, then capscicum, tomatoes around the edge all pretty-like, then olives3. Sprinkle cheese over pizza4. Bake pizza at 220C for 10-15 minutes

If you're not worried about health (or breath), you could sprinkle some olive oil over the pizzas, and extra crushed garlic. According to Jamie Oliver (Oil-liver was a Freudian typo), this makes pizzas taste more authentic. I don't miss them, myself.

This is actually vegan, but hopefully it stills counts for the cookbook. We called it Wackie Cake growing up since it doesn't have any eggs in (I'm not vegan, but this is still one of my favorite chocolate cakes to this day).

Beat eggs and milk together. Add small amount of this mixture with the dry ingredients until a smooth batter is formed and then add rest of egg/milk mixture. Layer a buttered pyrex dish bottom with a layer of green chiles and grated cheese. Add two more layers. Pour batter over layers. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until down (lightly brown).